Tuesday, May 16, 2017

What is this document? According to the British Library blog: "A mid-12th century trilingual Greek, Latin and Arabic Psalter from Sicily illustrates an intricate propagandistic message. The manuscript contains the trilingual text in the ancient layout of three separate columns, but its function was probably much more than fulfilling the practical needs of a multilingual liturgical environment or serving as a textbook of an eccentric scholar. It was designed as a tool in the political propaganda of the Norman dynasty, ruling an essentially trilingual Sicily in the 12th century. Its threefold layout with one and the same text in Greek, Latin and Arabic testifies to a society in which multiple language groups had come together under a new Norman rule."

A
mid-12th century trilingual Greek, Latin and Arabic Psalter from Sicily
illustrates an intricate propagandistic message. The manuscript
contains the trilingual text in the ancient layout of three separate
columns, but its function was probably much more than fulfilling the
practical needs of a multilingual liturgical environment or serving as a
textbook of an eccentric scholar. It was designed as a tool in the
political propaganda of the Norman dynasty, ruling an essentially
trilingual Sicily in the 12th century. Its threefold layout with one and
the same text in Greek, Latin and Arabic testifies to a society in
which multiple language groups had come together under a new Norman
rule. - See more at:
https://www.bl.uk/greek-manuscripts/articles/multilingualism-in-greek-manuscripts#sthash.3weXifTN.dpuf

A
mid-12th century trilingual Greek, Latin and Arabic Psalter from Sicily
illustrates an intricate propagandistic message. The manuscript
contains the trilingual text in the ancient layout of three separate
columns, but its function was probably much more than fulfilling the
practical needs of a multilingual liturgical environment or serving as a
textbook of an eccentric scholar. It was designed as a tool in the
political propaganda of the Norman dynasty, ruling an essentially
trilingual Sicily in the 12th century. Its threefold layout with one and
the same text in Greek, Latin and Arabic testifies to a society in
which multiple language groups had come together under a new Norman
rule. - See more at:
https://www.bl.uk/greek-manuscripts/articles/multilingualism-in-greek-manuscripts#sthash.3weXifTN.dpuf

About Me

Professor of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. Author of Memories of Revolt: The 1936-39 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past. Co-editor of Palestine, Israel and the Politics of Popular Culture and of Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity.